Episcopal Church nominates four bishops

One woman and three Southern men have been nominated to lead the Episcopal Church as the badly divided denomination faces an uncertain future and threats of schism after decades of fighting.

The four bishops - J. Neil Alexander of Atlanta; Henry Parsley of Birmingham, Ala.; Edwin Gulick of Louisville, Ky.; and Katharine Jefferts Schori of Las Vegas - were nominated Wednesday by a 29-member nominating committee to serve as presiding bishop.

The church's new presiding bishop will be elected to a nine-year term June 18 at the Episcopalians' General Convention meeting in Columbus, Ohio. The winner will be installed in November at the National Cathedral in Washington.

Many U.S. churches are watching the Episcopalians closely as they confront inner conflicts over homosexuality and biblical authority - and the next few years will be a critical test of the church's ability to remain intact. Whoever is elected will have to guide the U.S. church through painful internal divisions and confront growing isolation from sister churches abroad.

Three of the four bishops come from the church's Southeast region, which is one of the few areas not losing members. Schori is the first woman nominated for the job. If elected, she would be one of the highest-ranking women ever to lead a major U.S. church.

Most nominees are considered moderate to liberal, and no one from the church's conservative wing was nominated. Additional people, however, can be nominated by April 1 in order to allow time for background, medical and psychological tests.

"There is no orthodox candidate, that's very clear," said the Rev. Kendall Harmon, a leader of the church's conservative wing from South Carolina.

Of the four nominees, only Parsley voted against the election of openly gay Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire in 2003. And while observers say Parsley is sympathetic to evangelicals, he has shown little patience for conservatives who want to break away from the denomination.